Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Sites of naturally elevated carbon dioxide
- Migration in the ground of CO2 and other volatile contaminants. Theory and survey
- Levels of CO2 leakage in relation to geology
- CO2 emission in volcanic areas: case histories and hazards
- Controlled degassing of lakes with high CO2 content in Cameroon: an opportunity for ecosystem CO2-enrichment experiments
- Burning coal seams in southern Utah: a natural system for studies of plant responses to elevated CO2
- Long-term effects of enhanced CO2 concentrations on leaf gas exchange: research opportunities using CO2 springs
- Using Icelandic CO2 springs to understand the long-term effects of elevated atmospheric CO2
- Plant CO2 responses in the long term: plants from CO2 springs in Florida and tombs in Egypt
- Acidophilic grass communities of CO2 springs in central Italy: composition, structure and ecology
- Studying morpho-physiological responses of Scirpus lacustris from naturally CO2-enriched environments
- Carbon physiology of Quercus pubescens Wild, growing at the Bossoleto CO2 spring in central Italy
- Preliminary results on dissolved inorganic 13C and 14C content of a CO2-rich mineral spring of Catalonia (NE Spain) and of plants growing in its surroundings
- The impact of elevated CO2 on the growth of Agrostis canina and Plantago major adapted to contrasting CO2 concentrations
- Stomatal numbers in holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) leaves grown in naturally and artificially CO2-enriched environments
- Effects of CO2 on NH4+ assimilation by Cyanidium caldarium, an acidophilic hot springs and hot soils unicellular alga
- Can rising CO2 alleviate oxidative risk for the plant cell? Testing the hypothesis under natural CO2 enrichment
- Increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and decomposition processes in forest ecosystems
- Index
CO2 emission in volcanic areas: case histories and hazards
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Sites of naturally elevated carbon dioxide
- Migration in the ground of CO2 and other volatile contaminants. Theory and survey
- Levels of CO2 leakage in relation to geology
- CO2 emission in volcanic areas: case histories and hazards
- Controlled degassing of lakes with high CO2 content in Cameroon: an opportunity for ecosystem CO2-enrichment experiments
- Burning coal seams in southern Utah: a natural system for studies of plant responses to elevated CO2
- Long-term effects of enhanced CO2 concentrations on leaf gas exchange: research opportunities using CO2 springs
- Using Icelandic CO2 springs to understand the long-term effects of elevated atmospheric CO2
- Plant CO2 responses in the long term: plants from CO2 springs in Florida and tombs in Egypt
- Acidophilic grass communities of CO2 springs in central Italy: composition, structure and ecology
- Studying morpho-physiological responses of Scirpus lacustris from naturally CO2-enriched environments
- Carbon physiology of Quercus pubescens Wild, growing at the Bossoleto CO2 spring in central Italy
- Preliminary results on dissolved inorganic 13C and 14C content of a CO2-rich mineral spring of Catalonia (NE Spain) and of plants growing in its surroundings
- The impact of elevated CO2 on the growth of Agrostis canina and Plantago major adapted to contrasting CO2 concentrations
- Stomatal numbers in holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) leaves grown in naturally and artificially CO2-enriched environments
- Effects of CO2 on NH4+ assimilation by Cyanidium caldarium, an acidophilic hot springs and hot soils unicellular alga
- Can rising CO2 alleviate oxidative risk for the plant cell? Testing the hypothesis under natural CO2 enrichment
- Increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and decomposition processes in forest ecosystems
- Index
Summary
SUMMARY
Carbon dioxide is a significant component of volcanic fiimaroles, and its concentration can vary within large limits in different environments. A high level of hazard can be associated to natural gas emissions, and a concentration of about 30% CO2 in the atmosphere is considered as a life threatening threshold. The oldest historical record of fatalities produced by natural degassing dates back to the Pompeii eruption of Vesuvius (AD 79); more recently, 142 people were killed in 1979 on the Dieng plateau (Indonesia), and gas emissions from volcanic lakes of Cameroon, mainly consisting of CO2, caused 37 victims at Monoun in 1984 and over 1700 fatalities at Nyos in 1986. Significant outputs of carbonic gases can be expected at any active or dormant volcanic system, so that potential hazards from toxic gases are associated to any area of recent or present volcanism. With reference to Italy, two sites appear to deserve our attention when considering hazards connected with gaseous emissions: Phlegrean Fields, NW of Naples, and the island of Vulcano, where civil settlements are located well inside the potentially hazardous areas.
INTRODUCTION
Because of the low solubility of carbon in silicic melts, carbon oxides are preferentially released from magma bodies as the confining pressures decrease: accordingly, any volcanic activity produced by the ascent of magmas from depth is characterized by significant outputs of carbon dioxide, whose stability is much higher with respect to carbon monoxide in all natural conditions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Plant Responses to Elevated CO2Evidence from Natural Springs, pp. 34 - 44Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
- 3
- Cited by